“What kind of dinosaurs?”

“The bad ones.” I grab her hand and the three of us jog out of the store and away from anyone who may want to ban us for life. Of course we end up getting lost in the maze that is the parking lot, but once we find the Mercedes, we hop inside and speed away.

I keep looking back at the yellow and blue building as it gets further away, imagining that angry IKEA workers are chasing after our getaway car with pitchforks and torches. It isn’t until we’re on the freeway that I burst out laughing. I can’t help it. Tears spring to my eyes and I’m just shaking from it all, howling like a lunatic.

Bram looks at me in shock, as if he thinks I’ve lost my mind, but then he breaks into laughter too. Soon Ava is laughing, even though she doesn’t know why. Maybe she hasn’t seen her mom belly laugh in a really long time. Maybe she’s been infected by the strain of lunacy that’s been going on between Bram and I. Maybe she’s just happy her mother looks wild and free.

We laugh all the way back to the apartment.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Nicola

The one thing about sleeping with your best friend’s brother-in-law is that you’re not exactly sure how to approach the subject, or if you should say anything. But because it’s me and it’s Bram, it’s almost impossible not to spill the beans. I’m bursting at the seams to tell someone.

When we got back from Ikea, Bram cooked me an amazing chicken and roasted vegetable dinner that both Ava and I loved and then the three of us spent the evening watching A Bug’s Life. When it was time for Ava to go to bed, well then Bram and I had a fuckfest fest all night. Even though I’d gotten off at Ikea – and finally lived out my secret dream of sex in public – I’d become more turned on for him, all of him, than ever before.

But now it’s the next day and Bram is in meetings and Lisa is coming to look after Ava while I work. If I don’t tell someone, even Steph, what’s been happening for the last forty-eight hours, I’m going to lose my mind.

I don’t know, Steph’s text back to me reads after I’ve begged her to meet. I’m kind of zonked and I had plans with my pajamas and Netflix tonight.

I need to talk to you, I text back. You need to hear about who had sex at IKEA.

There’s a pause.

Then. WTF? Who had sex at IKEA? The store??

Come to the bar tonight and I’ll tell you. And yes the store.

OMG. Was it you? OMG. WAS IT BRAM?

See you tonight.

Fine. Gah, you bitch!!!!!!!! Tell meeeeeeeeeee.

Later.

FUCK.

And that’s how I convinced Steph to come hang out with me while I did my shift at the Lion. Fortunately it was a slow night but not slow enough to be sent home, so Steph sat at the bar and I eased my way into telling her the big news.

“Just spill the beans already,” she says, pounding back beer number two. So much for wanting to stay at home and watch Netflix.

“All right,” I say and I can feel myself blushing.

“Wait,” Steph says, holding up her palm. “I already know. I already know. Look at your face. You’re a giant tomato! It will always give you away.”

I sigh and lean in, dropping my voice. Even though there aren’t any people close to us, I don’t want it to fall into the wrong ears. I’m not exactly a kiss and tell kind of girl, even though that’s just what I’m about to do. “I slept with Bram.”

“What?” she shrieks, and James looks over from the other end of the bar.

“Steph, shut it!” I warn her, leaning across the bar to smack her arm. “I thought you figured it via my tomato face.”

“Yeah but to hear you say it!” she exclaims. She wriggles in her seat. “Okay, okay, details. All the details. Tell me everything. Does he have a big dick? Is he like Linden?”

“Calm down,” I tell her, knowing she was going to bring Linden into it somehow. “Okay, I guess it all started with IKEA.”

“IKEA!” Steph says with a smile, putting her fist down on the bar as if IKEA was the name of a good friend of ours.

“Yeah, well, he took me there, you know I told you, to get a new couch.”

“Yeah…and you had sex on the couch!”

“No. Just wait. Okay, so it was all fine. He was flirting with me, you know how he is, so damn direct about it.”

“Just like Linden,” she says dreamily, her chin propped up on her hand.

“Not like Linden,” I tell her. “Anyway, so later, back at home, he comes over to help me assemble the couch. I can’t remember if I asked him or not. Oh yeah, I needed a drill! Anyway, Ava is having a nap in my room and we’re talking…and…you know, he’s not at all what I thought.” I don’t want to divulge any of the private stuff he shared with me about the charity, but I say, “And I think he’s not at all what you think. Or even Linden. He’s a lot deeper than that.”

She snorts. “Bram? Deep? Come on, the only way he’s deep is when he’s trying to calculate all the women he’s been with.”

I have to admit, I’m getting a bit defensive. “Not true at all. I mean, yeah, there’s women. Or there was.”

“Was?”

“But I’m getting ahead of myself—”

“You are getting way ahead of yourself.”

“Anyway we were talking and…God, I don’t know. I just…I know it’s stupid of me but man, you know, all this time with the flirting and innuendos and I just wanted to see what it was like to be with him. You know? It started to become all I thought about, just looking at him, listening to that damn accent—”

She sighs loudly. “Yeah, that accent.”

“He was making me feel things I hadn’t felt in a really long time.”

She gives me a steady look, her lip pouting slightly. “How come you never told me about this? I thought you hated Bram.”

“I did! But, he kind of won me over. And I guess I figured it was just stupid to have a thing for someone like him.”

“Oh, honey, come on. Who doesn’t have a thing for Bram? He’s Bramtastic.”

“Oh my God,” I exclaim. “You’re just as bad as he is!”

She shrugs.

“Look,” I point out, “you were just threatening him to not even look at me, you were threatening me and Kayla about breaking up the balance of the group. There were a lot of threats. I didn’t want you mad at me or, God forbid, lecture me.”

“I know I said those things,” she says, “but that’s only because I care and I just wanted to warn you. But honestly, you’re like all-aglow and stuff. I haven’t seen you like this in a very long time. I know you’re being careful with him…aren’t you?”

I nod. “Well, I’m not falling in love with him, if that’s what you mean.”

“Good,” she says. “Not that I don’t want you to fall in love, I would just be extra wary with a man who seems pretty good at breaking hearts.” She pauses, watching my face fall. “But that aside…you slept with Bram. My brother-in-law.”

“Yup.”

“So, you were assembling the couch and he just, what, took you right there?”

I laugh. “That’s not so far off. We were underneath the fabric of the couch. You know how IKEA is, you have to put together everything. We were zipping this foam thing to the lining and…I don’t know. Some kind of look passed between us and the next thing I knew, he was kissing me, his hands were everywhere. I was pushed back onto the ground and my shirt was up and he was…it was pretty fucking hot.”

“And, and…?”

I shrug. “And Ava interrupted us.”

“Cockblocker!”

“Steph,” I warn. “That’s my daughter you’re talking about. And yes, she’s a cockblocker.”

“But tell me you at least got to feel what he was packing.”

“I told you I slept with him. Obviously dick was involved.”

“Hashtag dick.”

“And well, when we were fooling around under there, he did, you know, put a few fingers in me.”